This would be a new Forum where posts will be written entirely in Greek or Latin. Post your own compositions: your stories, your poems, that so far secretly guarded epic of yours on the marriages -- many and sad -- of miss Elizabeth Taylor!!! <br /><br />Engage in philosophical discussions in the language of philosophy! Parade your talents in sophistry! Engage as well in simple chit chat in the "sermo plebis." <br /><br />The forum would be dedicated to communication in the ancient tongues at all levels. Corrections on syntax and grammar and so forth would be given only if requested, and should be asked about only when a post is so barbaric as to be incomprehensible. <br /><br />The main goal is communication rather than grammatico-syntactical purity, which is to say, that you should not be afraid of participating if you do not know that much Greek or Latin. Participation would be open to all levels. This is intended as a means by which we can all improve our languages. Still, posts will be required to be in Greek or Latin, and so your questions on grammar, syntax, etc. are to be made in the regular Greek and Latin Fora, unless you wish to post them here in Latin and Greek. I hope you will wish to participate,<br /><br />yours,<br />Seba

[quote author=Elucubrator link=board=2;threadid=64;start=0#223 date=1051122496]<br />This would be a new Forum where posts will be written entirely in Greek or Latin. Post your own compositions: your stories, your poems, <br />[/quote]<br /><br />I will be posting about one approach to composing Greek later this week, perhaps the weekend.<br /><br />I only beg that we use betacode, or unicode character entities when/if Jeff gets those working, for the Greek itself. It's actually a standard, tech-savy classicists use it readily, and it doesn't make my brain itch (unlike using ''v' for the sound 'n').<br /><br />Some might be interested to look at this, too:<br /><br />http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Graece/<br />

Hi William,<br /><br />thanks for the link. However, if that's beta code that they're using over on the Graece list. It comes across on my computer like this:<br /><br />?É…<pi>?ÉƒÉ÷É É?ÉÀ É¬? ?É—É« , ?É—É« É»Éø? ? É±ÉøÉ–É ÉøÉÀÉ«É»?V É¬É«?É¿ÉÕÉ…ÉÕV - É ÉÕÉÀ?É—<br /><br />Oh, well, darn, looks like I can't show you here yet, but what it looks like is some Greek letters which I can read interspersed among lots of question marks, for instance, the above looks like this to me, (in my method of transliteration)<br /><br /> ?lp?zwmev d??ti, ?ti, ka?? Tasmavik?s di?bolos - mov?tatos ?k t?v diab?lwv - ?v ?lh8e?a ?gg?ll?v ?xoi, ?s peripo?hsei a?t?v e?s a??va ?k xeip?v t?v gewpg?v te ka?p?vtwv t?v kakoupg?v.<br /><br />Although, I can with eyestrain and patience, relying on my palaeographic skills render some of this into Christian thus:<br /><br />elpizwmev dioti, oti, kai o Tasmavikos diabolos - movotatos ek twv diabolwv - etc...<br /><br />I assure you that my headache is now the worse! ;D At any rate, I would find it impossible to participate in Greek like this. Sorry ???<br /><br />Ah, my friend, you seek to lure me in by speaking of tech-savviness, and by claiming support for "what the classicists readily do. But who cares? After having to deal with this brief example I see not only that it is more complicated but that it doesn't work. I had almost mistaken it at first for a page of the Talmud if not for some sample of literature rendered in the Klingon language. <br /><br />At any rate, I think it will be easier for anyone who hasn't already been forced to learn this artificial, clumsy, and inelegant beta script to write Greek in transliteration, than it would for anyone accustomed to write in Beta Code to remember that "v" in fact equals the sound "n" in Greek. Come on, that shouldn't make your brain itch! <br /><br /><br />yours sincerely,<br /><br />Seba Caecus <br /><br />PD God! where did I put the advil... >:(

[quote author=Elucubrator link=board=2;threadid=64;start=0#229 date=1051129152]<br />Hi William,<br /><br />thanks for the link. However, if that's beta code that they're using over on the Graece list. It comes across on my computer like this:<br />[/quote]<br /><br />No, no, that is not betacode. Do a google on that to see how to use betacode.<br /><br />The Graece list is using Unicode. Completely different thingie, not at all universal.<br />

I do hope Jeff manages to get Unicode support up! I think it's worth mentioning that for Greek there are 2 types of Unicode: the version with pre-combined accents can cause trouble with some browsers. It seems to work all right with Mozilla, but with Opera (which I use primarily) I get Greek characters interspersed with little boxes or question marks.<br /><br />In anticipation, my keyboard keys sport little bits of sellotape with Greek characters, so I can type without consulting the character map... hehe...<br /><br />And William, I look forward to this post of yours on Greek composition!<br /><br />~(* Raya

aiai aiai !!!<br /><br />Unicode is great. It really doesn't work for a lot of people, though.<br /><br />This is of course why I spent many hours programming the crazy image based system I use on aoidoi.org. It's the only thing sure to work with every browser (except, of course, the ones that only do text).<br /><br />Ideal for fora like this would be special codes that turn stuff in <greek> (or whatever) into images, like the annoying smileys, but greek letters instead.<br /><br /><br />And the Greek composition thingy might be ready for this evening. Certainly I'll post it by friday evening (CST -0500).

OK at the risk of sounding like a total idiot, can someone recommend a tutorial or something online re: Latin accents, etc. via traditional keyboard use?<br />I use both Mac and PC operating systems (poorly) and have no idea how to type the Latin with proper accents, etc....forget about Greek, I'm too much of a beginner...<br /><br />Or, is this impossible and must I have some special software or something? I love the advantages and opportunities which technology brings, but am sad to say am not computer savvy.<br /><br />E

Hi Erica, lucky for you real Latin doesn't write the accents, so you don't need them fro Latin, but I know that on a Mac if you want to put an accent above a letter you hit option + e together and the next letter you type will get an acute accent. Holding option down with the letter "u" will give you an umlaut, with "i" a circumflex. There are more combinations as well. Experiment and don't be afraid to push all the buttons.<br /><br />As for the Greek, can you see the Greek that people type on your screen? If not you can get the right font, which is called SPIonic plus a text document that shows you what all the keystrokes are to reproduce the Greek with accents and everything. It takes a little practice but you get the hang of it quickly. Both Lex and Raya gave links for where you can get the font. And you can find these on this page:<br /><br />http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic . php?t=50;start=15<br /><br />I noticed with Raya that we could have ancient Greek chat on MSN messenger with the SPIonic font, and it's a useful messenger programme to learn the keystrokes because they show up on screen in Greek as you type. This way you don't have to be referring to the keystroke explanations all the time until you learn it.<br /><br />Good luck,<br />and let us know when you can see the Greek,<br /><br />Seba